Results from a comparison of single-sex and coeducational Catholic secondary schools using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 suggest that single-sex Catholic high schools are not especially favorable academic settings, and that any advantages of the schools only benefited boys. Pre-enrollment differences may explain…

Discusses a study to establish and compare the perceived importance of 17 of the most regularly identified effective-schools characteristics for school community members in Australia and the United States. Principals, teachers, parents, and students believe that the most critical elements are dedicated and qualified staff, clear school purposes,…

Comparison of two matched groups of seven students with severe disabilities (placed in either general education classrooms or special education classes) found that students in the general education placement interacted more frequently with nondisabled peers, provided and received more social support, and had larger networks of peers without…

Describes ISAP (Internet Self-Assessment in Pharmacology; http://www.med.umn.edu/ISAP), a World Wide Web-based educational environment for health professionals. This active learning environment that includes text (lecture outlines), reference manual (drug reference cards), and study guide (exam questions), allows users to access and review drug…

Analyses of data for three cohorts of middle-school students (more than 5,600) show that communal organization was not related to mathematics achievement or attendance, but academic press was positively related to both mathematics achievement and attendance. Results call for more skepticism about the currently popular communitarian approach to…

The development of a measure to assess students' perceptions of the extent to which higher education learning environment characteristics enhance personal learning is reported. Factor analyses of the Student Assessment of Teaching and Learning are reported for 2,190 students. Implications for using student rating information in teacher evaluation…

Explores a set of pedagogic practices in a 'progressivist' classroom as practices of covert institutional regulation. The article attempts to show how the instructional potential of the pedagogic act is subordinated to the regulative rules of the institutional context of the classroom, so that following classroom rules becomes the main focus of…

Depicts the hostile social, political, and economic environment in which racial and linguistic minorities now live. Demonstrates how educators can become advocates for reform. Educators must be willing to reconfigure public education, redefine their relationship to the community, create radical curricula, and make explicit their moral and social…

Sexual harassment is prevalent on both school and college campuses. Parents and educators can eliminate sexual harassment in schools by teaching students to be assertive and report offensive behavior to an adult, documenting children's encounters with sexual harassment, checking with other parents, and filing a formal complaint. Schools need…

Examines seven federal court opinions that determined whether an educational institution can be held liable under Title IX for student-to-student sexual harassment that occurs on the institution's property or in connection with school activities. (82 footnotes) (MLF)

Describes development of the School Culture Inventory (SCI). Interviews of staff, parents, and students in three high-performing secondary schools in British Columbia identified common attitudes and values related to organizational culture, which were then used to construct student, parent, and teacher surveys comprising the SCI. Pilot testing…

Uses the concepts of risk and resiliency to frame discussion of how a learning disability affects nonacademic outcomes such as emotional adjustment, family functioning, adolescent problems, and adult adaptation. A learning disability is viewed as one risk factor which interacts with other risk and protective factors including individual internal…

A school audit is described, based on the PeaceBuilders program, which helps to create a more peaceful school environment. A research-driven violence prevention program, PeaceBuilders has identified characteristics that help in creating this environment, such as common language, positive stories and behavior posters, daily rewards, group rewards,…

Discusses the role connectionism plays in the development of cognitive theories and in the explanation of linguistic phenomena inherent in second language acquisition (SLA). Presents a critical look at some existing connectionist models of language functions with a focus on the need for a general cognitive model of SLA that integrates research in…

Reviews the history of school violence and explores probable reasons for its increase, particularly in rural areas. Among 20 rural school superintendents interviewed in southern Georgia, over half believed that school violence was increasing, and many reported using technology and additional programming to deter school violence. (LP)